Category Archives: Unity

What it means to be one In Christ.

The Heart of God – A NEW Creation

by Michael

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How does one begin to claim that he knows the heart of God? Only by drawing close enough to Him that you can feel both what pleases Him and what disappoints His great loving heart. We can read the sacred writings and expostulate about them until the cows come home and still miss what our Father is saying (see John 5:39-40) unless we have become like David. God said, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22 RSVA). I had to go through a heart change to see the things I share with you in this article. I used to study the Bible to justify myself and to get “ammunition” to condemn others. I soon found that Jesus was right—with the same measure of judgment I was doling out to others, I was getting the same judgment heaped back on me. That heart had to go.

Just what has been on the heart of God from the beginning of time? We see a hint of what He wanted in the earliest writings of the Bible narrative. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.’” (Genesis 2:18 NLT). God had made Adam in His image and likeness right down to making him a lonely man, lonely like Himself. “He [Adam] gave names to all the livestock, birds, and wild animals. But still there was no companion suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:20 NLT).

God created man to be His companion. He walked and fellowshipped with Adam in the Garden of Eden. As we read further in the Old Testament, we find Him speaking of a wonderful intimacy that He desired with man:

Go and shout in Jerusalem’s streets: `This is what the LORD says: I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness. (Jeremiah 2:2 NLT)

But Israel, the nation He chose to manifest His love for man, was unfaithful to Him and so, undaunted by their coldness toward Him (for Israel had become a harlot chasing after other lovers (see Deu. 31:16, Ezek. 6:9 and Hosea 2:1), He started speaking of a New Covenant with a new people.

 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 31:32 NLT)

Where the people of the Old Covenant were a people with stony hearts toward Him (thus their commandments were also written on tablets of stone), He would now create a new people and give them new hearts that would be faithful to Him as their Husband.

 For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:24-27 RSVA)

Yes, this people would be given a new heart and a new Spirit, His Spirit, and be gathered out of all the nations unto Him as His faithful Bride. God proved that all the law keeping efforts of man were futile. Unless God does a miracle, puts a new heart in each one of us, and puts His Spirit within us, there will be no lasting change. We will continue on as bankrupt lovers, unable to keep our hearts fixed on our heavenly Husband.

This, my friends, is the message of the New Covenant. Our Father has made for Himself a new people with new hearts that long to be with their Bridegroom, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We who are His are caught up unto Him and devoted to Christ as our loving husband, not some religious counterfeit.

 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:2-5 RSVA)

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, (Revelation 21:9-10 RSVA)

So many Christians today still have not seen that God makes all things new! We have been given a New Covenant unlike the old one based on the works of the law. His righteousness dwells within us, not our own. We are made perfect in Christ. Why? Because we who believe have put on Christ and He is our only identity!

 …for ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as were immersed into Christ, did put on Christ. There exists neither Jew nor Greek, there exists neither bond nor free, there exists neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28 WAS)

As Paul quoted, “it is in Him we live and move and have our being.” There are no longer any walls of separation among us after the manner of this fallen world or men’s religions (see Eph 2:14-15). In Christ we no longer look on one another and think of ourselves in divided terms like Jews, Gentiles (or any other form nationalism or religion). We no longer think of ourselves in class distinctions and social stratum (bond nor free). And here is a big one, men! We no longer think of ourselves as better than our sisters in Christ, because in Christ God has made all things new and all the old divisions and curses that are a result of the fall of man are passed away and all things have become new (notice I said in Christ, not in ourselves).

How does this new found unity in the New Covenant work? What is the life transforming power that makes us not only see one another as new creations (see 2 Cor. 5:17), but that binds us together as a cohesive unit? What makes us the very Body of Christ in unity with Him as our only Head here on earth? In Hebrews we read:

 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchiz’edek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. (Hebrews 7:11-12 RSVA – see also Hebrews 8:1-7)

Jesus told us what this new commandment that goes with the New Covenant is. As we see in the above passage, with Christ as our Great High Priest after the order of Melchiz’edek, a new law came. What is that new commandment that Jesus has given us? He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35 KJ2000)

So now, dear saints, we have come right back to where we started. God requires and also provides us with new hearts and fills them with His love, first for Him and then for one another. This is the love of the Bride of Christ. It is a love for Him and as a result a love for everyone He loves.

If you still cling to the Old covenant law, read Paul wrote:

 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10 RSVA)

If you can’t believe Paul, then believe Jesus:

And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 RSVA)

Love! It is a heart issue that God is concerned with in man and always has been, not about the legalistic enforcing of rules and regulations. Jesus warned the judgmental law keepers of 2000 years ago who judged His disciples, “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath.” (Matthew 12:7-8 RSVA).

It keeps coming back to love and mercy, not law keeping and condemnation. God is gathering a bride for His Son out of all nations, and she will be madly in love with Him, not focused on her own righteousness. His love is in her heart because her heart is His heart. Her spirit is His Spirit. His commandment to love one another as He loves His bride is her commandment. In this the world will know that we are a New Covenant people, that we have His love for one another. Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly… in us.

Do We Really Love?

by Michael

Religion-love affair

Why has God put in our hearts this need to be loved? We all seem to have this human trait in common if we take the time to get in touch with our emotions. Physiologists have found that infants which are not held and loved, but otherwise have their physical needs met, will eventually die. Then I would ask this… Is the need to love as strong in any of us as the need to be loved? Between these two longings seems to be a large chasm fixed. Why this deficit? Doesn’t it stand to reason that God created man with as great a capacity to love as he has to be loved? As I look at the scriptures it seems that God has both of these qualities equally. He speaks of Israel as His longed-for bride in the Old Covenant and in the New He speaks of the church as the bride of Christ. He longs for our devotion and love as well as defining Himself as Love. This deficit to love is at the root of the damage that came upon mankind when Adam and Eve fell. When they sought to be made “wise” without Him, they became self-centered and cold.

 John wrote,

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 KJ2000)

 Here we are commanded to love, but there is no command to be loved is there? No, the longing to be loved is innate in us and God put it there for God IS love. What a bold statement! But even bolder is the command written here to love one another, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.” Do we really love one another, my fellow saints? Do we love one another the way God loves us? Isn’t this what John is saying, “Everyone that loves is born of God” Do we really live as if He IS our Father, living by the same attributes?

 I recently wrote the following in a letter to a dear friend in Christ, “Is love just a game? Is it some kind of sport where we maneuver with one another, each one trying to get into a position so that the other one needs us but we maintain control so we don’t need them? As I look around at all the relationships I have seen, it really seems to be the case. How often have you ever seen a married couple that both NEEDED each other the same amount with the same intense love? Or is it that I have come from such a dysfunctional family background that I perceive relationships this way?”

 How often in the relationship between two people do you see a mutually in-depth love for one another? Isn’t it almost always lopsided? Today I see so many marriages where one person loves the other and the other one seems indifferent and self-centered. There are many unequally yoke couples in Christendom today. The ones who have truly given themselves to one another spirit, soul and body in complete unity, the unity that the Father has with the Son are rare indeed. Yet, isn’t it something we all long for who are IN Christ? Grant it, not all are really IN Christ among even those who call themselves “Christian,” yet is not this the very gauge that John has put forth in the above quoted passage? If this malady is true of husband and wife relationships in the church, how much more is it true of the relationships that members of Christ’s body have with one another who are not so closely bound? I can’t get away from Jesus last will and testament:

That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me. (John 17:21-23 KJ2000)

 Christian unity, even marital unity and love for one another are bound together. John goes on to write,

 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:16-17 KJ2000)

Can you see how these two verses here tie right in with Jesus’ final prayer? “He that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.” Coupled with, “I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one…” How many of us really dwell in love and unity? Don’t most of us spend our waking hours dwelling on our own needs and desires? Yet in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is this an attribute of the love of God? Here Paul wrote, “Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…” Is God really dwelling in us as we spend the day focused on our wants and desires? If so He must be pushed into a back room closet.

 “He that dwells in love, dwells in God and God in him.” Do we so dwell in the love of God that we are made perfect by His indwelling power of love in us? Are we made perfect in love? And if not will we have boldness on that judgment day? John seems to tie the love of God in with boldness as well for he continues to say,

 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19 RSVA)

 We love because He first loved us. His love for us and in us has enabled us to love as He does, also. Fear has torment, yet if we are dwelling in the love of our Father, if we really know HIM as the one who loves us so, we will have no fear from Him or anyone else for that matter. Love does that! It makes you bold. Bold enough to love others as God loves you without fear. How many of us love this way? Aren’t we afraid to be vulnerable with one another and as a result aren’t we really afraid to love for fear of being dumped or fear that if we share our most intimate secrets with a person they will not love us anymore or worse yet, blab them to others whom we do not trust?

 Aren’t most of us afraid to let our real emotions show for fear of criticism or being crushed? So there we go living life wanting to be loved by others, yet afraid to let them know it? You see, for real love to work it requires great vulnerability and many opportunities to be wounded. This is why John inserts here the fact that perfect love casts out fear. We must be so moved by the love of our Father that we can openly communicate His love to others and be willing to keep loving them even when that love is not reciprocated. This is the kind of love that Jesus had for those who killed Him, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matthew 23:37 RSVA).

 It is said that the apostle John whom we quote, was the longest living of all the apostles and as such he was the last one living that had seen and lived with Jesus Christ. They would bring him into a gathering of saints on a stretcher and they would wait to see what this old saint would have to say to them and he would rise up on one elbow and say, “Little children, it is enough that you love one another.”

 So, dear saints, I pray that we might all be so changed by the love of our Father that we become instruments of His love to others regardless of how they do or do not receive us. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” THIS is the way God loves and it is here that we will manifest whether we are truly mature in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

 A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. (John 13:34-35 KJ2000)

What Has Been Happening?

by Michael

But who may endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
(Malachi 3:2-3 KJ2000)

We know that God has said that in the last days, He would be doing a deeper work in the hearts of His saints AND that He would use our fellow saints to work in and prepare us for the second coming of our Lord Jesus.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”– for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Revelation 19:6-8 RSVA- emphasis added)

Yes, WE as members of the Bride of Christ are what HE uses to make us ready for His coming. It seems that in the last month and a half He has gone after one issue after another that was still lurking deep in my heart, some of them lingering there even from my childhood. I have gone for years before this, without Him really touching any new issues in my heart. He seems to do these things in seasons and I have been in one of those painful, yet wonderful periods of my life.

God in His wisdom has used a wonderful sister in Christ to reach into my heart and bring to light a lot of places that my attitudes toward different classes of people had not been healed. It was about 24 years ago that a lady counselor told me she could go no further with me after about three sessions. Then she told me a curious thing… that when God got at the rest of what was holding me back He would use a woman, not a man as He had previously years earlier (in 1979)… Well, this has all come to pass as He used a very unsuspecting vessel over the internet to touch my heart. This dear sister slipped right in “under my radar” if you will and God started using her to do what no other person could do before.

Once the first area of darkness was brought to light, my hatred for pastors and disdain for ecclesiastical authority, then the others came tumbling down as well. And get this! She didn’t even know that God was using her this way. Jesus just showed up in her words! Yes, He still uses the weak things to confound the mighty and the foolish things to confound the wise. I don’t know how many more issues are going to show up, for at one point the Lord showed me my heart with the top removed and it looked like a cone-shaped coffee filter with grounds in the bottom. When I saw that, I gave Him full permission to empty me out once again.

As a precursor to all this He had me meditating on this passage (and I am still marveling over it in its simplicity)…

And we are writing this that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
(1 John 1:4-7 RSVA)

Light! God’s pure light! This is the power that exposes darkness and makes it flee away. But it also heals that scar that is left behind when our darkness is banished. A study about light is a very interesting thing. Light not only illuminates, but it bleaches things out like a fuller’s soap (see Malachi 3:2) and it also kills bacteria and purifies.  But here we see John revealing to us that LIGHT is integral to REAL fellowship in the Spirit of God.  IF we are walking in the Light as HE is in the Light…. God is Light and in Him there is no darkness… true fellowship is found where hearts are open to HIM and to one another.

Later in John’s letter we read that God is Love as well. So, can we have real healing fellowship with one another without HIS healing Love there, too? I don’t think so. Love is what it takes for us to open up to His light… We love Him because HE first loved us… and His love in His saints is what holds us together and enables us to trust one another and to open up to one another so HIS Light can shine in!!! This is when the blood of Jesus does its cleansing work! It was being loved unconditionally by a bunch of hippie Jesus People in 1970 that got me to open my heart up to God and be healed from a spirit of hate that was left over from my part in the Vietnam War.

“We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” You see it all fits together… I was having fellowship in openness with this sister and God came into it to open me up and heal me. Some of you might read this and think, “Poor sap! What is HIS problem? I got perfectly healed when Jesus came into my life!” Well, good for you! But with me the next verse in 1 John has great meaning as well… “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

So, dear saints let us boldly enter into His throne of grace and let His light do its work with one another… no more silly church games of parading around in our righteous robes like so many Pharisees of old! Let us open up our hearts to those whom God has given us in a special relationship (the spiritual ones we can trust [see Galatians 6:1]) and get REAL with one another…

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
(James 5:16 KJ2000)

Do you see the context of effectual and fervent prayer? It is for one another’s healing as members of Christ’s body. I hope we will all find that special person, as I have, who God uses to heal us and get to the bottom of our heart issues that hold us back.

“You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another.”
(Proverbs 27:17 MSG)

God bless you all!

 

 

 

Intimate Love Divine

by Michael

Two Eagles soaring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, the wonders of that blood,

That washes and cleanses our souls,

In His Spirit from above,

Fanning us like burning coals,

In God’s eternal love.

 

There was a time long before,

We were considered not a people,

Struggling in the house of the whore,

Those buildings with tall steeples.

 

With tender love Jesus found us,

Calling us unto Himself,

“Be washed in my blood you must”

And rescued us from isolation’s shelf.

 

Oh, the joy of fellowship divine,

We have found with Him within.

Oh, this wondrous love sublime,

We share with those freed from sin.

 

To some “intimacy” is a word to fear,

As with the Pharisees of old.

To others it is a joy so near,

These to whom He bids, “Enter bold.”

 

“Too heavenly minded,

To be earthly good,” they said.

In self-righteousness they are blinded,

To these we have this to say,

“You are the ones who are binded.”

 

With Christ and Father we are one,

That is the eternal key.

To find most intimate love in them,

And knowing what it means to be we,

A people bound in ONE big family – intimately.

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Just Who Is Really “Forsaking the Assembling of Ourselves”?

by Michael

FamilyGatheringI wish someone would show me in the New Testament where it says we are supposed to “go to church on Sunday.” My Bible says we who are Christ’s ARE the church. How can I go to something I am already part of because I am attached to Christ who is my Head, not to Paul, or to Apollos, or Peter or Pastor Wonderful? The best thing that ever happened to me was finding my sufficiency in Christ instead of in educated men.

I am sure that someone will try to answer the above “going to church” question with the trite answer, “Brother, we are not to forsake the gathering…” I agree, but since when is sitting in rows, staring at the backs of hundreds of heads while being lectured by one man being gathered together into the fellowship of the Father and the Son?  THAT IS the context of this verse:

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh. (Hebrews 10:19-25 ASV)

As you can see, we are to gather together by passing through the Veil–the torn flesh of Jesus Christ–and boldly enter into the presence of our Father, where Jesus stands forever making intercession for us as our ONLY High Priest. It is in this kind of intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son that we are called to assemble ourselves to as members of HIS body. It is in this realization of our high callings IN Christ that we can truly exhort one another as a kingdom of priests and not just fill a common building one day a week, listening to a paid Christian lecture.

The next question that might be asked is, “If you don’t go to church on Sunday, then where DO YOU fellowship?” Do we come together with other saints on a regular basis? Absolutely! We spend more hours per week by far, fellowshipping around Christ with the local fellow saints, than those who go to meetings under the control of a single man and sit there as passive listeners! Is it always on Sunday in a steeple house that we gather? No. But Jesus said that “wherever two or three of you come together IN my name, I am there in your midst”… and it doesn’t get better than that! He directs our hearts as to when and where to come together and the only overhead that we have to deal with is restaurant meals and tips or contributing to a great home-made meal we share together as we speak often together IN His name.

Am I bitter against the organized religious systems of men? Not at all. God delivered me out of that systematized religious order. In fact He about had to drag me out of it. My wife, Dorothy, and I had gone to at least twelve different churches in the years following my birth into God’s kingdom. I was constantly “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” who walked in humility as Jesus did, but all these “church leaders” absolutely loved to have preeminence over the relationships that these saints had with one another and their Lord. They cast their own shadow over everything that happened in their churches. These religious leaders could be counted on to quench the Spirit if He tried to get a word in edgewise or in any way disrupt their pre-planned agendas.

God finally said to me one Sunday as I sat in a “service,” “Why do you keep seeking the Living among the dead?” Well, THAT got my attention! He showed me that unless Jesus is the functional Head over a body of believers and its members individually, and they are led by His Spirit in their daily lives, that “fellowship” is dead because those body members are disconnected from their Head. I had to come out of that system so I could learn to hear His voice as my Shepherd instead of constantly listening to the voices of men taking His place. For me it was like being “dried out” from an addiction. Now that I know His voice it is easy for me to discern when something preached or taught is askew. John put it this way:

“These things have I written unto you concerning them that deceive you. But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.” (1 John 2:26-27 KJ2000)

Is going to a Sunday church bad? No, unless you settle for a relationship with a church leader instead of submitting to Jesus as your Spiritual Head. Paul wrote:

“For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 KJ2000)

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 KJ2000)

Being divided along party lines (called a “party spirit” in the New Testament) is not natural to the kingdom of God, but it is expected and accepted among the kingdoms of men. The Spirit of Christ is the supply we drink from if we are truly His. We who drink from that ONE Spirit are ALL members one of another and rest in the unity of the Spirit of Christ and the Father before the throne of grace and fellowship around their love. We are truly ONE in the Spirit from which we drink.

Jesus Prayed, “That They ALL May Be One…”

by Michael

God would have us all be single-minded and with the Mind of Christ in each of us it is possible. In Acts we read of the infant ekklesia in Jerusalem, “And they were of one mind and in one accord.” Jesus prayed just before He died on the cross:


“That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:21-23 KJ2000)

I have been absorbed, pondering the depths of this prayer as of late. The thought of such unity in the Father and the Son that Christ has made available to us is overwhelming to me. I just now coupled for the first time Jesus’ prayer with something that Paul wrote,

“For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized [immersed] into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26-28 KJ2000)

If we are ONE in the Father and the Son because we have been immersed INTO Christ through faith true faith in Him alone, then it stands to reason that there can be no divisions among us whatsoever unless someone is failing to be ONE by clinging to their self-life and individuality, more than they cling to Jesus. Maleness (macho) or femaleness (feminist), Jewishness or pride in nationalism, free people lording over their servants and slaves, the rich looking down their noses at the poor, etc., all these things have their roots in pride, the ugly pride of fallen Adam and Eve who ate of the wrong tree so that THEY could become their own gods separate from the Father.

But true unity IN the Father and the Son is found by abiding IN them alone and being totally caught-up in the love they have for one another and for us and being caught-up in that love until our only identity is one great fellowship of love in Christ and in one another.

But whoever keeps his [Jesus’] word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in him. He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1Jo 2:5-6 KJ2000)

“That where I am, there they may be also”

by Michael

“That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:21-23 KJ2000)

Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Oh, what pure obedience to the Father that He could safely say this and affirm to them that He only did the works He saw His Father doing and only spoke the words He heard His Father saying.

I once prayed this, “Father that I would be as your Son, that I would only speak the words you have for me to speak and would only do the works you have for me to do.” Don’t pray like this if you are not ready to suffer greatly and be totally broken by Him.

As we are broken of trusting in ourselves and seek only that Life that is found IN Christ to abide in us, we will be able to say to this lost and dying world as Christ’s body, “If you have seen us, you have seen Jesus” and it will stick. Until then we are just part of the problem.

“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” (1Jo 3:2-3 KJ2000)

Full Body Ministry or Full Body Cast?

by Michael

body cast

In my early years as a believer, I heard a lot of teaching about “full body ministry.” The teaching was that God gives each one of us who is in Christ abilities to do something well for the benefit of rest of the body of Christ and if we would just function in that gifting all our needs would be met through Christ. Paul wrote:

Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure [Grk. metron] of faith.

Here we see Paul counseling us to think soberly and not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. I have found that in the institutions of men there are very few sober thoughts. As these institutions grow so does the power that is consolidated near the top. Men become drunk on power and true sober thinking goes out the window. Sober thinking is thinking with the mind of Christ who upon finding Himself in the form of a man did not reach for the top, but rather lived in humility and took on the form of a servant and living a life and dying a death for the benefit of all.

The problem with most church institutions is that they have taken on the world’s form of leadership, top down, executive titles, unquestionable authority, etc. Most have the life of Christ organized out of them and have taken on a life that is against the Life which Christ desires to manifest in His saints where He gives each member of His body a measure of the Spirit by which we are to serve one another. The mindset of that system is that the guy at the top (pastor, apostle, evangelist, bishop, C.E.O., etc.) has every ability to do everything that needs to be done and that other people only exist to augment those abilities either through donations or subservient leadership and ministry positions. How opposite this is from how the Spirit moves among us with HIS measures of grace? These measures are given to each member to function not according to the dictates of an office holder, but rather to function according to the will of Jesus where all that is done is done in a mindset of pure servant-hood and laying down of our lives for one another.

Church leaders usually have a metron in which they are gifted by God and they are good at it and gain much attention because of this gifting. But the mindset of the systems of the world takes over and soon it has them trying to minister outside their metron and they fail every time. Not only that, but they take over in an area that God has given to another member of the body in their measure of Christ and now the body is robbed twice.  Like all diseases, this infection soon becomes exponential following the example of the head and it is not long until the whole body is dysfunctional and is spiritually dead. It becomes “The Peter Principle” on steroids, simply because each member is not answering to the Head who is Christ and functioning in the measure of grace He has for them. Oh, how we all need the mind of Christ and His cross working in us which gives us the humility we need to truly serve one another in His love.

“Five-fold Ministry” or Dead Kings?

by Michael

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“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” (1Co 3:21-23 KJ2000)

As we read chapter three and four of Ephesians we see a reoccurring theme: “each, every, all, etc.” and they all refer to the functioning of Christ in His body. But when we get to vs. 4:11 we read “some.” This is a tip-off… somebody cooked the Book! The word in the Greek for “some” here is “ho.” It is the definite article. Now try reading that verse this way, “And he gave THE, apostles; and THE, prophets; and THE, evangelists; and THE, pastors and teachers;”

 Here is another place the definite article “ho” is found, “In the beginning was THE Word, and THE Word was with God and THE Word was THE God.” You see, it is THE WORD who is THE Apostle, THE prophet, THE Evangelist, THE Pastor and THE Teacher. It is not about us, but rather it is ALL about Him. These enablings or graces are all HIM and as we “live and move and have our beings IN Him” and not in ourselves and we will find them working BY Him in each (ALL) of us. God is NOT a respecter of persons. It is time we start living IN Him outside of the box (read “steeple house”) mentality and find Christ as our total sufficiency and KNOW that we should seek to live in the fullness of Christ. The verse before Ephesians 4:11 says, “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph 4:10 KJ2000 – emphasis added), not just “some.”

Notice this Eph 4:11 in the English Standard version. They seem to have got it, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,” (Eph 4:11 ESV). These five nouns can be translated either singular or plural and more often than not most of them were used in the singular. So, with this in mind it could and should read, “And He gave the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Pastor and Teacher…” Jesus is THE Apostle (See Heb. 3:1). He is THAT Prophet (See Acts 3:22-23). He is THE Evangelist (euaggelistēs), the one who brought good news (euaggelizō) from the Father to us all. He is THE Teacher (See Matt. 23:10). and He is THE Pastor, The Shepherd of our souls (See 1 Pet. 2:24-25). In short HE is our All in all. Christ is our sufficiency in all things (2 Cor. 3:5). We in our old adamic natures are quick to put a man where only Jesus belongs and would do well to read 1 Cor. ch. 3 again with this in mind.

Once He showed me the definite article in this Ephesians chapter four  passage it all became so clear. Christ is ALL in ALL, not just in some. He manifests different parts of that ALL that is Him at different times in each of us. Paul was not a lone spiritual freak who could say, “I can do all things through Christ who is my strength.” or “For me to live IS Christ and to die is gain.” This is our inheritance as we live IN Christ!

I just got back from a trip to Phoenix, AZ with George Davis. It was evident that God was sending us down there by the way the saints were moved on by Him to finance the whole trip, our lodging, food and everything and it all happened without us ever even suggesting it or asking for a dime from anyone. George Muler once said that when God conceives a work He also is its source of supply. Now that we are back and have seen the spiritual fruit of that “sending out,” “apostolos” (envoy or sent one) event, we know that it is Christ who was the Apostle in us for that brief season. Tomorrow, He might be another part of His ALL in us or He might have us do nothing but rest in Him and wait before Him.

Are we privileged? Are we entitled, now to call ourselves “apostles”? Are we to start beating the drum and enticing others to “invite us into their areas” and then obligate them to “give to the work”? NOT hardly. This is a false paradigm and NOT His kingdom in action. Claiming a particular ministry or title is limiting God in us at best and can quickly become idolatry in the worst form as we seek to take on a larger than life form before the saints of God. George is nothing, Michael is nothing… just mere men like you who yielded to His will for a moment in time. This walk is all about HIM, dear saints. “In Him we live and move and have our beings.”

Dead Kings or the Living Christ?

 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their harlotry, nor by the dead bodies of their kings on their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: therefore I have consumed them in my anger. Now let them put away their harlotry, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. You son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house… This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole area round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. (Eze 43:7-12 KJ2000)

Israel had built tombs for each of its dead kings around the temple of God. Their thresholds were over against the threshold of the house of God. They had put a wall between Him and them by these abominations. Today it is not all that difference. A great man of faith will rise up and what do we do? We set out to build an institution or a denomination around them. Today we have followers of “dead kings” in the church. They became followers of Luther, Calvin, John Wesley, Meno Simons, Alexander Dowie, William Branham, Kennith Hagan, Oral Roberts, Gordon Lindsey and many others who were larger than life who’s light shown for a season and now they are dead. Most of these men did not set out in the beginning to have men follow them, but carnal followers always desire a king to rule over them (see 1 Samuel ch. 8) and thus another Christian sect is born.

Let not we who serve in the body of Christ build our temples over against the House of God and our door posts over against His door posts as we attempt to draw men into our soulish spheres of influence while we seduce them away from HIS house which you all are (See Hebrews 3:6). George and I are through with the houses of dead kings and committing spiritual necrophilia with their carcasses. We would see Jesus in ALL His saints not just some! Isn’t Ephesians 4:11 followed by, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12-13 KJV2000)? As long as we are followers of men this will never come to pass.

There was a time when God’s men detested the thought of taking what belongs to God alone unto themselves (see Acts 3:1-12, 14:11-15 and 20:29-31). Today we need more ministers who will rend their garment, expose their flesh and point all men away from themselves to Jesus and no other.   Remember, for many of us the last god to die is called, “MY MINISTRY.” “To HIM be the glory for ever and ever, Amen.”

True Humility Binds Us Together

by Michael

I think that Jesus was really onto something when He washed the disciple’s feet. At the time they were a mess; disillusioned with Him and His insisting on going to the cross to die and they were still vying for kingdom positions at His right hand and His left out of pride. Nothing He could say got their attention or made them look beyond their temporal states with Him and each other. So what does He do? He gets up from that last meal he was to have with them, strips Himself of His clothes in front of them, wraps Himself with a servant’s towel and starts washing their feet.

Needless to say they were humbled. From all that confusion and strife they became focused on the humility of Christ. He was the abject Servant and Divine pattern right up to the moment He was to be betrayed by one of His own and crucified. He drove the lesson home by taking on Himself the form a servant and went on to lay His life down for them.

Finally, that night He said to them, “You call me Teacher and Lord: and you say rightly; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them” (John 13:13-17 KJ2000). Herein is our healing and happiness, my brothers and sisters. Always seek a way to wash one another’s feet as “dirt” rises up within your fellowship with one another. If a body’s feet are clean, then the whole body remains clean.